Dark
by Intentional
Impact
Jim Walsh… resurfaces.
The ex-ad exec, & the man largley repsonsible for reviving cacáo's fortunes in Hawai’I back in the 1980s, has been quietly plumbing the chocolate depths ever since leaving the Big Island.
His latest project lands him in Yucatán, Mexico -- a place of some considerable historical lore for chocolate culture. There, Walsh & his daughters & their partners have teamed up with local governemental officials to re-develop the area’s once-sacred cacáo groves.
The group plans to cultivate 2 primary genotypes, both labeled Criollo. When asked if these 2 have any local trade-name(s), Walsh says ‘no’. As to what he refers to them as, he replies "Adam & Eve" (this gives a flavor of the man & a bit of where the conversation veers... hey, it all reverts to the basics, doesn't it?).
During a long & ranging chat (almost 2 hours in length), Walsh is engaging, very knowledgeable, & forward-looking, even a bit esoteric at times. Which affords an opportnity to enter into his adjunct project: until those seedlings in the Yucatán mature in a couple years, he’s much about Intentional Chocolate. show more »
Appearance 2.8 / 5
| Color: | frosted bloom field |
| Surface: | baking chips / pistoles in keeping with the idea of chocolate as sacrament (think communion wafer) |
| Temper: | scruffy |
| Snap: | bullet proof |
Aroma 6.7 / 10
comforting malted cocoa & coconut
Mouthfeel 10.5 / 15
| Texture: | brittle wax shards |
| Melt: | fits & stops / dribs & drabs |
Flavor 36.9 / 50
cocoa-vanilla influx (almost searing the throat) -> coconut shells -> wooden back -> turns waxen (carnauba) in concert with its Texture -> strangely begotten black fruit (ill-defined between prune & fig) -> choc-chip cookie finish
Quality 12.6 / 20
Terribly generic... except for... the hidden X-factor "ingredient".
Intentional Chocolate's promotional materials cite Hawai'i chocolate "accented by notes of plum & a hint of ecstasy". But this bar tastes quite un-Hawaiian on several fronts.
Maybe distant shades of El Rey from the late 1990s Venezuela. Or, closer to home, Blommer.
Then, again, so overly-treated with vanilla to effectively mask any origin. The volatiles so abrasive they act like clove nearly irritating the throat.
And whether those plum notes, for instance, are additives or spiritually-infused is hard to tell since their apparition seems rather phantom-like anyhow.
By superpostioning itself toward a higher realm & consciousness leaves Intentional Chocolate suceptible to unintended consequences by overlooking the basics of the lower order (such as the fundamentals associated with artisan chocolate processing techniques).
Above all, a vexing question persists: why only a hint of ecstasy? Sounds modest given how this claims to provide a statistically-precise increased lift in vigor... by up to 67%.
That's enough to lose the train of thought here... the ability to critique & the power of speech... the very motor coordination skills, such that the act of writing becomes laborious, then pointless; ergo impossible to continue this review.
What a reaction. This chocolate must be working. (Psychosomatic or otherwise.)
It's having its intended FX. The thematic execution undeniable.
Way off-the-charts.
INGREDIENTS: cocoa beans, cocoa butter, cane sugar, lecithin, vanilla
Reviewed March 8, 2012
Intentional Chocolate's promotional materials cite Hawai'i chocolate "accented by notes of plum & a hint of ecstasy". But this bar tastes quite un-Hawaiian on several fronts.
Maybe distant shades of El Rey from the late 1990s Venezuela. Or, closer to home, Blommer.
Then, again, so overly-treated with vanilla to effectively mask any origin. The volatiles so abrasive they act like clove nearly irritating the throat.
And whether those plum notes, for instance, are additives or spiritually-infused is hard to tell since their apparition seems rather phantom-like anyhow.
By superpostioning itself toward a higher realm & consciousness leaves Intentional Chocolate suceptible to unintended consequences by overlooking the basics of the lower order (such as the fundamentals associated with artisan chocolate processing techniques).
Above all, a vexing question persists: why only a hint of ecstasy? Sounds modest given how this claims to provide a statistically-precise increased lift in vigor... by up to 67%.
That's enough to lose the train of thought here... the ability to critique & the power of speech... the very motor coordination skills, such that the act of writing becomes laborious, then pointless; ergo impossible to continue this review.
What a reaction. This chocolate must be working. (Psychosomatic or otherwise.)
It's having its intended FX. The thematic execution undeniable.
Way off-the-charts.
INGREDIENTS: cocoa beans, cocoa butter, cane sugar, lecithin, vanilla
Reviewed March 8, 2012